The (Unrecognized) US Contribution to Bloodshed in Syria

The dominant US. media narrative says only the Syrian government has killed anyone during the seven-year conflict while the US role in Syria’s nightmare is blacked out, says As’ad AbuKhalil in the first part of this Consortium News commentary.

By As`ad AbuKhalil Special to Consortium News

The US government—under Barack Obama and Donald Trump—has managed to exonerate itself from responsibility for the carnage in Syria and the prolongation of the war there. Media of the left and right (those ideological distinctions are meaningless when it comes to the coverage of the Syrian war in the US) have contributed to a narrative that basically presents the US as an innocent bystander to the bloodshed in Syria.

Worse, even when the US clearly engages in bombing which results in high rates of civilian casualties, the US media and the public attributes benevolent motives to the US—first to Obama and then to Trump. You have to believe that Trump orders bombing of Syria (or “bombing of Bashshar,” as US media like to say, implying that US bombs and rockets don’t fall on innocent Syrians) because Trump is moved by scenes of suffering. For this bizarre narrative to set in, it was necessary to engage in falsification and propaganda that far exceeds the propaganda of any party to the conflict. Far from being an outside party, the US has been heavily involved in the Syrian war from the very beginning—and most probably even before that.

The US government (and the compliant media—from the left to the far right) established a convenient explanation for the Syrian conflict: that the US and its allies (some of the most despotic regimes on the face of the earth in addition to the Israeli occupation state) have not contributed to any of the killing in Syria. All the killing in the civil war, this explanation goes—and it has become a civil war, albeit with regional and international dimensions like the Lebanese civil war—has been perpetrated by foes of the US and Israel.

A woman looking for her children in the aftermath of a powerful bomb that blew up in Tariq al-Jdideh in the mid 1980s. (Photo: Khalil Duhaini)

According to this scenario, none of the killing in Syria can be even blamed on the Syrian “rebels”—which also is a convenient label intended to hide the clear Jihadi ideological doctrine of such groups. For example, the “rebels” in Yarmouk are specifically Al-Qa`idah and ISIS, while the “rebels” in Idlib countryside are Al-Qa`idah—but there’s no need to classify them lest the dominant narrative is disturbed.

Because many of those rebels fit into the same camp where the US is located, they can’t be blamed for the carnage. The Syrian government and its allies are solely responsible, according to this narrative. If you suggest otherwise (i.e. that Syrian rebels and their sponsors are also responsible for war crimes just as the Syrian regime, without entering into the question of numbers, because we don’t know yet who-killed-whom or how-many because there is no official tally of the victims, and it is unlikely there ever will be one—just like in Lebanon’s protracted war) you are accused of working for the interests of the Syrian regime, Russian intelligence, and Iranian mullahs.

It Started With Supporting Damascus

US responsibility begins with its support for the Syrian regime over the years. The US and Syria were not always enemies—all stories to the contrary in the US, pro-Zionist press notwithstanding. The US has been on the same side of regional conflicts on many occasions with the Syrian regime. In 1976, Damascus intervened in the Lebanese Civil war (on the side of the right-wing death squads of the Lebanese Forces—which were armed and sponsoredby the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and some European governments). When Syria intervened to crush the alliance of the Palestinian resistance movement and the Lebanese left, it did so with the full knowledge and support of the US and the Saudi government—we now know from declassified US archival documents.

Syria sought and received US blessing for its intervention and a pledge that Israel would not obstruct it. Even before the Lebanese war, we now know from US declassified documents and/or Wikileaks that the US and the Syrian regime (mostly through the Syrian chief-of-staff, Hikmat Shihabi, and others) worked closely against underground Lebanese communist revolutionary cells like the Arab Communist Organization (whose leader, `Ali Ghadban, was executed by the Syrian regime) as well as the Lebanese Socialist Revolutionary Movement (which stormed the Bank of America in Beirut in 1973, and sought $10 million to support the war effort against Israel).

Long before Syrian regime’s coordination with the US to go after those accused of Islamist radical violence, both governments worked against radical leftist groups even when the Syrian regime was ostensibly aligned with the USSR (of course, the relationship between USSR and Syria reached a crisis point in 1976, and the Syrian government underscored that state of relations in trying to win US support for its role in Lebanon).

But the relationship later soured between the US and Syrian governments in the wake of Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem in 1977. The Syrian government felt, rightly, that the US-Israeli alliance wanted to achieve peace according to Israeli terms and without having to insist on full Israeli withdrawal from those territories which were occupied in 1967. (None of the Arab regimes, including the Syrian, by 1977 were no longer really concerned over those territories of Palestine which were occupied back in 1948).

The relationship between the Syrian government and the US reached the point of conflict in 1982, when the US sponsored the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and then forced Lebanon to sign a humiliating peace treaty with the Israeli government in 1983. Syria was at odds with the US and the Phalange-installed government and it supported Lebanese foes of the Amin Gemayyel government. As is well known, the US deployed forces in Lebanon between 1982-1984 (in fact, the forces were never withdrawn but merely “redeployed” off the coast of Lebanon in 1984, according to Ronald Reagan’s announcement at the time). During this period, the US and Syria were in direct military conflict, and the US lost a jet over Syria, and a US pilot was captured.

But the conflict did not last long, as the US and Saudi Arabia worked to arrange for Syrian re-entry into Lebanon in 1987, and a year later the Ta’if accords were reached, where the Syrian regime was basically permitted to control Lebanon in return for Syrian military and political support for the US war on Iraq in 1991. At that time, the US was close to the Syrian-Egyptian-Saudi axis in Arab politics, which lasted throughout the era of Hafidh Al-Asad. There is much about the US relationship with Syria during that era that we don’t know about, regarding coordination in the fight against “terrorism” despite differences in definition of terrorism between the two sides.

The era of Bashshar Al-Asad didn’t completely end Syrian coordination with the US. The Syrian regime, just like other Arab regimes, worked with the US to share information about “Jihadi” groups and even helped in the torture of individuals deemed dangerous by US intelligence agencies. Yet, the two countries had many disagreements especially in the area of the Arab-Israeli “peace process”. But the real conflict between the two sides began to build up right after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

(Part Two to follow)

As’ad AbuKhalil is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. He is the author of the Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (1998), Bin Laden, Islam & America’s New ‘War on Terrorism’ (2002), and The Battle for Saudi Arabia (2004). He also runs the popular blogThe Angry Arab News Service.

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57 comments for “The (Unrecognized) US Contribution to Bloodshed in Syria”

Youri

May 6, 2018 at 10:22 am

fantastic stuff! the secret history often airbrushed in 24 hour News or even Al Jazeera and Democracy Now and the Intercept. keep up the brilliant work Consortium News, Rania Khalek, Rania Masri, the professor who is enlightening us, and Mint Press News and The Real News Network.

DEMAND that US STOP supporting ISIS propaganda front WHITE HELMETS !!
Messages can be left 24/7 with Senators and Reps.
For both Houses, phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

j. D. D.

April 30, 2018 at 1:09 pm

Although the neocons had targeted Syria for overthrow long before the days following 911, it was Obama who, in the aftermath of the bloody murder of Qaddafi carried out by the UK, France and the Obama, that the outright treasonous support for the jihadists assault on Syria and the drumbeat for “regime change” became the acknowledged US policy. While President Trump has not lived up to his campaign promises to end regime change wars. his level of involvement, the scope of the death, destruction and resulting refugee crisis should not be mentioned in the same breath. After all, it was Obama who not just inherited the wars of Bush, but greatly expanded them throughout the region. Trump, by contrast, has twice vowed to change US policy, first to recognize Assad, and then to withdraw, only to be met with the “chemical weapons” hoax each time, follow-ups to Obama’s near catastrophic response to the original hoax at Ghouta.

Abby

May 2, 2018 at 12:38 am

Obama, the gift that keeps on giving ….

The president who was awarded the Noble peace prize entered office with two wars going on and left with the two wars still going on and with the 5-6 new ones that he started.

Obama killed the weak anti war movement because his supporters believed that he did have to invade Libya because he had a responsibility to protect the Libyans. Bombing people’s country is a strange way of protecting them isn’t it? But for some reason his supporters didn’t have a problem with his regime change nor did they seem to have one with his increase of troops in Afghanistan, his restarting the Iraq war or his use of drones. The drones were acceptable because they saved our soldier’s lives. Good reason.

Trump then came into office inheriting Obama’s 7-8?wars and when he said that he wanted to pull the troops out of Syria, for some reason Assad thought that would be the best time to gas his own people. But what makes this even more strange is that Obama’s supporters were upset with Trump for not doing more damage to Syria when he bombed them. Why? Because they think that he didn’t do more damage in order to not upset Vlad. Go figure this out. Oh yeah. Obama’s supporters had no problems with Hillary’s role in the Libyan fiasco or that she wanted to create a no fly zone over Syria which would have needed to have 70,000 troops go into Syria and it would have risked war with Russia. Nope. No problem with that.

mike k

April 30, 2018 at 12:23 pm

As Americans, we believe in constant struggle and greed for more by any means, including robbing and murdering others to get what we desire. We have developed a huge war machine of professional murderers to satisfy our desire for more and more. The art of conning others to do their dirty work has been perfected by those at the top of our pyramidal power matrix, so that the rulers don’t have to soil their hands with the necessary dirty work, but leave it to a vast army of war slaves, who have been cleverly convinced they are not slaves, but actually heroes. What a wonderful scheme of oppression we have created!

Once upon a time a rock singer wrote a song that pointed all this out. As a E German refugee he had seen this elephant and recognized it in the “west”. The man is John Kay, the band is Steppenwolf, the song is “the ostrich” last cut on the Steppenwolf album. Same one with “born to be wild” on it. check out the lyrics from 1967!!

Always enlightening to read comments on CN. New phase of the “7 countries in 5 years” now entered with Iran as the next target. Netanyahu will address the country this evening about Iran, according to Jerusalem Post, just after Pompeo visited Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israel wants Iran completely out of Syria. Trump will “decide” on the JCPOA with Iran on or by May 12. Lebanon has elections May 6. Iran has announced it is going off the dollar. Next move on the chessboard? Always military for the US, that’s all they have. More and more articles on websites about decline of the US empire.

The war criminals had a “State Dinner” after illegally bombing Syria.
See article at link below
————————————————-
April 28, 2018
“The Wining, Dining, and Dancing of the War Criminals”
…
Recently there was a “State Dinner” and a meeting where two of the war criminals hugged and kissed and held hands, while receiving adulation from the attending sycophants. These two “leaders” were fresh from firing over 100 missiles into Syria [1] in an illegal act of war the third war criminal was missing from the sick celebration….
[read more at link below]http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2018/04/the-wining-dining-and-dancing-of-war.html

mike k

April 30, 2018 at 11:27 am

The Bloodsuckers Banquet, eh Stephen. And a gruesome time was had by all the Ghouls and Demons – a real black mass shindig. How clever of the participants to wear costumes pretending to be decent human beings! All the better to devour their agonized victims……………

Good one mike k: “The Bloodsuckers Banquet” you made my day with that one,
Cheers Stephen J.

mike k

April 30, 2018 at 9:40 am

The author of this piece seems not to understand that America is not responsible for the problems that other countries are causing in the world. Actually America is the solution to everybody’s problems. If only these misguided countries would realize that America has the only true economic system, form of government, religion, and culture – then all would be well with them and our world. We have been forced to sometimes use force to correct the wayward behavior of other nations. If they would only realize that we are their teachers, and only seek what is best for them, then they would obey our wise demands and meekly follow our guidance. But no, many of them disobey our instructions, and force us to use our heroic armed services to bring them in line.

When will the nations and peoples of the world recognize that we were meant to rule over them for their own good, like wise parents? When that great day comes we will have peace on Earth – as long as everyone continues to obey us!

Good to keep in mind regarding the region, any enemy of Israel is our enemy with the possible exception of the Saudi’s. You can also be assured that in any conflict between the Saudis and Israel, we would take the side of Israel. Cooperation with Syria on the matter of Lebanon and during the first Gulf War were merely blips in this policy and were unlikely to result I any disadvantage to Israel. The author’s criticism of Syria is based in large part on the struggle between extremists like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Assad regime. Like today, a look at the past may find that support for the extremists to weaken Syria existed at the same time as we were cooperating with Syria for other short term reasons. Like today with Russia, I think Syria wanted good relations with the US but when push came to shove, we gave them the back of our hand.

Babyl-on

April 30, 2018 at 8:04 am

I post this observation of the historical record occasionally which does not seem to have much impact on opinions around the world, at least as far as the power elites are concerned.

I choose August 6, 1945 the day a nuclear bomb was used by the US against a city full of innocent people slaughtering around 100,000 people instantly and causing great suffering for millions from radiation poisoning, not to mention the generations of malformed babies. That is the start of the wholesale slaughter of tens of millions of people over the next 73 years. From that day to today and with momentum well into the future the US has aggressively invaded and interfered in the affairs of over 80 nations and more importantly the US has slaughtered innocent people in multiple locations around the world every single day 24/7/365 – 26,600+ days of continuous slaughter.

The exceptional and indispensable Empire of slaughter.

The great freedom loving exceptional duty to slaughter.

There is no salvation for an Empire of this magnitude of slaughter nor should there be.

mike k

April 30, 2018 at 11:21 am

All this slaughter is for the sake of the God America worships – the WAR GOD. Why not admit it, my fellow Americans – we love killing people. Our “entertainment ” is mostly about violence. We are far and away the greatest murderers on the planet!
Why be modest about it – we are full of pride in our power to kill our fellow humans. By God, they better do what we tell them, or we’ll kill “em! War is our biggest business. We love weapons and devices of death. Anybody who says the American Empire is not the greatest ever – just look at how many we have killed, we are the all time winner in vicious murdering – isn’t that great!!

Joy

April 30, 2018 at 2:29 pm

I hear the voice of a conscientious American. But how many are there ?

Quang

May 1, 2018 at 9:57 pm

Will we see karmic consequences in America? Will enough people awaken to turn things around? How long will we live by the law of the jungle? Will we continue to fight over power over resources, or will we learn to cooperate?

john wilson

April 30, 2018 at 4:03 am

The author says the ideological meanings of left and right are meaningless in the case of the Syrian war. Actually, these sentiments are meaningless in any war the US starts or gets involved in and fairly meaningless in any domestic political situation as well.

Babyl-on

April 30, 2018 at 11:14 am

Correct, and a point many have tried and failed to get to sink in. The center (which in the US is extreme [yes a center can be extreme the center starts the wars]- extremists make wars) of not just US but Western politics has been mortally wounded. With no center or a weak center there is nothing, or at least nothing substantial, to be left or right of. I think there is a nascent insurgency out there and it is damaging the center day by day or just standing by while the center makes a fool of itself with nakedly fake attacks all over the world.

The central question is: Will the Imperial US accept a place as an equal nation or blow it all up?

George Lane

April 30, 2018 at 1:34 am

Great to see the Angry Arab here on Consortium News, hope he becomes a regular writer.

Thanks, Joe, the article only helps to confirm that we’re entering another phase of this disgusting mess because Trump is either clueless, or so personally beholden to the Russian-Israel Jewish Mafia suggested by your Veterans Today Gordon Duff article posted previously, that Israel and the zio-neocons have him completely twisted into a pretzel (which he is, anyway). With Pompeo now running State, we can expect utter aggressive madness. He comes from Kansas/Bible Belt Christian evangelical area where folks think the end times are coming and there will be a great final battle on the plain of Armageddon, and those folk would gladly foster that battle in order to see Jesus come again. This is one twisted country!

Joe Tedesky

April 30, 2018 at 1:14 am

I once some close to forty years ago got into reading Hal Lindsey, and was fascinated for about a month. I finally kept searching from one book to the next, and I found one written by a father son theological thinker team who said forget that Armageddon irrational worrying that every generation has had their anti-Christ. If the world were coming to an end you’d be better planting a row of corn, or buy puppy food for the pup. Me I’ll be the guy in the middle of my lawn sitting in a lawn chair, toasting ‘it’s been nice’. I’ll even give racist neighbor a hug.

The thing about Duff, is he will never get Prime Time. The MSM would treat him like a Alex Jones, sorry Jones fans but Alex is a little to loud tabloid for me. Exposing the real dirty act amongst the variety of dubious dirty actors is the real challenge for any crimes of outside government collusion. In many cases Trump’s laundering, if there were any, could be worldwide, and not necessarily just of Russian oligarchy interest…. but blaming Russian is more Maddow & mindless war like.

As the 2 Korea’s settle, and I will warn anyone not to celebrate until the U.S. agrees to the crafted negotiation of the 2 Korea’s….but outside keeping an eye on Ukraine, and just me on Venezuela, but someone is aiming big at Iran viva Syria real bad. The recent Cabinet appointments are utterly disturbing, but life goes on.,. Get me my lawn chair and sunglasses!

Always good. Joe

Joe Tedesky

April 29, 2018 at 9:26 pm

It’s the money that buys the violent wares that the U.S. has so produced. Little does the American public understand the powerful Think Tanks that line the avenues of Washington, and even less is known of who supports these war strategists who hold our government at every turn.

Take for instance this redesign of the Iran JPCOA agreement, and ask yourself to just why, and to what does that mean. Well look no further than to the Brookings Institute’s ‘Path to Persia’.

“Although the Iranians typically have been careful to avoid crossing American red lines, they certainly could miscalculate, and it is entirely possible that their retaliation for U.S. regime change activities would appear to Americans as having crossed just such a threshold.”

Who are these people who craft such destructive nonsense? Why it’s Haim Saban, an American Israeli duel citizen. Do an internet search to learn more about this man Saban, and then take note of his power in American media, let alone his owning an American Think Tank.

We the American people while we slept loss our country to the Israeli’s. It’s that plain and simple. Saudi Arabia is so stupid it doesn’t seem to realize that it is only along for the ride, and Israel is laughing behind its Saudi back.

Unless by some miracle we Americans truly do take back our country, then don’t expect nothing but misery and bankruptcy to follow, if we follow the Brookings plan.

And while your talking to your next door neighbor about all of this, then ask that neighbor if they have ever heard of the USS Liberty or Jonathan Pollard… let me know what they say.

Bob Van Noy

April 29, 2018 at 10:19 pm

Thank you Joe. Apparently American Foreign Policy has for sometime been following the absurd notion that: “The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend” it’s a mind blowingly absurd notion that can only lead to isolation. I just now typed this into a search engine and clicked on the first link. I’ll present it below but one can easily see that policy built on this kind of thinking is ridiculous…

One of the reasons the military was restructured into a “Professional Military” is that many of the Vietnam Era draftees were well educated in the Humanities, Economics or the Sciences and could see through the absurdity of American Policy first hand; but could do little about it but hope to live through it. Apparently our War College trained Military Elite are incapable of peaceful solutions.

Joe Tedesky

April 29, 2018 at 10:51 pm

Bob as you know I served in the Navy between 1968 & 1972, and yes Bob their were quite a few among the crew who were smarter, or as smart, as their military superiors. For further reading on this subject I suggest you read Andrew Bacevich’s “Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (American Empire Project)”. Bacevich in this book talks directly to what you are referring to.

Your always on the ball Bob, and you never disrupt a good conversation, as you only add to the quality of the debate. Joe

Joe Tedesky

April 29, 2018 at 10:43 pm

Bob thanks for the link, it was rather enlightening. Your link Bob made me think of America’s first enemy of my enemy, as that was the Native-American, who for their efforts loss everything. I would recommend that any enemy of our enemy think twice before committing themselves to fighting for our side.

That ethnic/religious map in the article is mind blowing. There is no way the majority (of aggregated minorities) will ever be content with allowing any one of the other minorities to exercise full control of the region. Endless war is guaranteed under such a scenario, and endless war is what they’ve had since Lebanon was first destabilised by Israel back in the 1980’s. Washington made sure the animus and conflict spread to Syria after Sunni rule in Iraq was upended.

Because Washington has backed different opposing factions in the various regions of this geographic mish-mash (just by very rough estimate: Shia in Iraq, Sunnis in Syria, but also Kurds in both places who are at odds with both the Shia and Sunnis, god knows who in Lebanon but never the Christians anywhere) the war(s) can go on indefinitely and forever drain the resources of these countries plus Russia, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia–diabolically clever, says Washington, as it pats itself on the back. Clearly they really did understand that it took a strongman like Saddam or the current (Bashar) Assad’s father (Hafez) to hold these countries together, which is why they and Gaddaffi were personally targeted, along with Tito’s successors in Yugoslavia.

The enemy-enemy-friend mumbo jumbo, it must be remembered, gives Washington the latitude to switch alliances on a dime, as it did with Russia itself when their useful puppet Yeltsin eventually self-destructed. None of these alliances are based whatsoever on any stable principles or beliefs. They are all ad hoc and strictly opportunistic. Washington is so deep into the bull crap and mutual contradictions that it could never extricate itself and concoct a “happily-ever-after” scenario for the poor souls in this region even if the existence of the universe depended on it at this point.

There is no ending these wars short of exterminating most men of fighting age, so they continue, egged on and exploited by Washington power brokers (and other outsiders) who never had any legitimate business setting up their obscene bases and murderous operations in these countries. When I look at America today I basically see a bully wantonly stalking the globe looking to pick fights because it can, using whatever flimsy excuse it can think of in country after country. The only winners are the investors in the MIC, the politicians they buy off and the media propagandists they subsidize. And the cowards in the EU trapped within NATO, who can easily see the logical disconnect, simply facilitate Washington’s bad behavior.

john wilson

April 30, 2018 at 4:09 am

Jo, the last miracle I know of was when Christ rose up from his tomb and even that’s questionable. Really, it doesn’t needs a miracle it needs common sense and the MSM to be taken down and rebuilt to process and pass on unbiased news. You’re right, we need a miracle

Deniz

April 30, 2018 at 10:00 am

It seems the issue with the money changers at the temple persists 2000 years later.

Joe Tedesky

April 30, 2018 at 10:41 am

You made me smile John, funny but true. Joe

Sam F

April 30, 2018 at 9:12 am

Very true, Joe, Bob, John, and Realist. I’ll add to Realist’s list of winners the zionists, the only reason the US fights in the Mideast instaed of just buying oil like everyone else, as they own the mass media and most think tanks, and are primary sources of bribery. Indeed we of the US lost our country to the Israelis “while we slept.”

It is surprising that Saudi Arabia doesn’t see that it will be a major loser here, converted by the ziocons from peace and prosperity to a hated buffer state with no benefit to itself, and that Israel is laughing behind its back. Its population is small and it must rely upon mercenaries. I would not be surprised by a major attack on KSA oil and military targets by Russia. It is also targeted by its own jihadis, who may be redirected against it. The US is beyond foolish to play games in the Mideast for Israeli bribes.

It begins to appear that the Russia/Iran/Iraq/Syria/Lebanon front will be assaulted by Israel/KSA/US until it is so heavily militarized that the final destruction of Israel is assured. Neither the Israeli nor the US warmonger bullies care, so long as they can pose as protector tyrants during their careers.

Agreed that it will take a miracle for Americans to “take back our country” from the dictatorship of the rich; likely “misery and bankruptcy” will be necessary to motivate that.

Joe Tedesky

April 30, 2018 at 10:46 am

Think of it Israel will have destroyed every nation surrounding it and beyond, while the Zionist have stolen America with many bribes, and blackmail to gain the help of the U.S. politician. While American leaders think in the very shortest of terms, the Zionist will have won the day by thinking over the long run.

I recall Obama reacting to the Syrian conflict by saying that everything that happened in Syria was the fault of the Assad regime. It struck me as ludicrous that the USA which supplied insurgents with weapons as it looked for “responsible allies” made its bed with ISIS rebels and supplied them with arms to support an “Arab Spring” like “flowering of democracy”. These were lies and more lies designed to mask what the US and Israel were up to disguising the overt military attack on Syria and an attempted regime change as support for grass roots freedom fighters who wanted to end the Syrian regime and replace it with a flowering democracy.

Nothing of the sort happened. Instead we were treated to ISIS beheadings and other heinous crimes carried out by ISIS (our partners) on the Syrian people and Western fools who went over there to help in the lost cause of freeing Syria from Assad via terrorist attacks.

This is a major reason that the Obama administration will be held in contempt for lying to the American public and telling them that it was seeking to promote democracy in Syria.

The rot has gotten inside our national government and it is festering and infecting international policy and creating a diseased and sickened foreign policy. A foreign policy that willingly and eagerly will partner with the most abhorrent terrorist groups to use as proxies to attack legitimate foreign governments with the full military support from the USA.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in military operations as a result. How dare the United states proclaim its innocence since it was the inception and the ideation and the enabler and the arms supplier for all of the carnage.

Obama dispensed a lot of bull crap. Obama merely continued policies that the Bushies undertook to invade seven target countries, a plan spilled to the public by friend of the Clinton’s, General Wesley Clark. Obama put uber warmonger SoS Hillary Clinton in charge of the projects to topple the dominoes in Libya and Syria (and even flip an unrelated one in Ukraine). Transferring the weapons stocks captured from the assassinated Gaddaffi to ISIS in Syria is what got the US ambassador Chris Stevens killed in Benghazi, as he was overseeing the project for Killary, a tale that could never be told to the public even by the Republicans.

Missile strikes from “an unknown source” have just been reported in Syrian areas of Hama and Aleppo. Explosions were heard for more than two hours and a 2.6 earthquake was reported. There are fatalities reported, as yet unclear. People fled houses. Some suspect Israel, Iran specifically states it was Israel. Mike Pompeo has just visited Saudi Arabia and Israel.

What Abe has said is urgent, a public conversation must be taken regarding the US-Israel-Saudi Arabia involvement in Syria. The situation is really beyond urgent, the rogue states of those three must be called out by the rest of the world.

The Israeli contribution to bloodshed in Syria has yet to be fully recognized.

Stephen J. Green is the author of two lengthy investigations – Taking Sides: America’s Secret Relations With a Militant Israel (1984) and Living by the Sword: America and Israel in the Middle East (1988) – that detail U.S.-Israeli relations during the period addressed in Part One of professor As’ad AbuKhalil’s commentary.

Fifteen years ago, Green observed that “Sometime around 2002-2003, the U.S. adopted Israel’s security policy, and the rest of the world became the West Bank and Gaza. Iraq, it was decided, would be the first test case.”

“The State of Israel has practiced pre-emption in its most virulent form–unilateral pre-emption–for decades. If America does continue to apply this doctrine we will discover, as Israel has, that it is destructive of our most important foreign relations, and the international laws and institutions which support those relations. The Bush Administration has done this in the name of internal security and will find, as has Israel, that unilateral pre-emption is the antithesis of internal security….it is in fact the road to isolation.

“In the coming months, as the fighting and chaos continue in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld urgently make the case for carrying the war into Syria and Iran, Americans will be asking how, why and at whose urging we have taken this road. We will begin to have a public conversation about the individual faces of unilateral pre-emption–a number of senior aides in the Executive Branch, particularly in the Pentagon, White House and State Department. These individuals share a radical view of America’s role in world affairs and very close intellectual, emotional and financial ties to the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.

“Ironically, several of these individuals who have advanced the case for unilateral pre-emption in the name of U.S. national security, have themselves faced formal investigations for violation of U.S. national security laws, over the past three and a half decades. The foreign government involved in each instance was the State of Israel.”

Now more than ever, that “public conversation” about U.S. unilateral pre-emption and the post-9/11 Israeli-Saudi-U.S. Axis of collusion is urgently needed.

Part Two of professor As’ad AbuKhalil’s commentary, dealing with the post-9/11 era, should help inform that conversation.

WC

April 29, 2018 at 8:56 pm

This is Ol’ Abe at his best. No troll shit, just the facts as he sees it.

Back in mid-December 2015, while he was trolling the comments for “Protecting the Shaky Russia-gate Narrative”, Hasbara clown “WC” made the hilarious declaration:

“There are no Zionist trolls on the Consortium News comments section. Why? Because it’s not worth their time and effort. All you are doing here is chasing windmills.”

This hilarious declaration was deleted, along with other scatalogical remarks, when “WC” got booted off the CN comments for that li’l potty mouth of his.

“WC” popped back up out of the Hasbara hole on the day after John Bolton’s appointment as National Security Advisor was announced by Trump.

Poo-poo enthusiast “WC” has been furiously puking Hasbara ever since.

WC

April 29, 2018 at 10:39 pm

You are not answering the question I asked. Falling back on the troll fetish is evasive and shows a lack of confidence.

WC

April 29, 2018 at 11:35 pm

There are certain words in the English language that are appropriate to convey serious objection. “Shit” is one of them – especially in connection with all of this troll shit you throw at ANYONE who has a different opinion. Sam F got it right when he said all of this troll stuff is not productive. It sure did piss me off being accused of something I am not.

And no, I don’t think there are any Zionist trolls on the Consortium News comments section. They are all over at the Christian Right where they get way more bang for the buck. The comments section here is a captive audience, and so heavily one-sided it is almost cult-like in nature. This is hardly a balanced forum.

Sam F

April 30, 2018 at 8:06 am

My remark on “inverse trolls” some weeks ago was that the concept is hard to apply because it interprets poor argument or excessive argument as intended to discredit the point argued, when the intent of such argument is unclear.

Opposing commentary here, when made respectfully, has generally been treated respectfully even when hotly opposed. You have been attacking Abe and Mike, and CN and its commentary, unfairly and consistently. If you make respectful comments strictly on evidence and argument, without denigration, discouragement, “nemesis” attacks etc. you would rarely be criticized.

One method is to compose comments separately and then review them yourself on criteria strictly excluding denigration, discouragement, attacks on a particular commenter, etc.
Then you can post them without concern that you will meet much hostility.

WC

April 30, 2018 at 2:00 pm

While I appreciate you lecturing me on civility, this is the pot calling the kettle black. Unlike Abe and Zac, who keep records of times and dates of all of their imaginary trolls, I have only my memory. And if memory serves, you were heavy into the troll conspiracy as well and didn’t hesitate to attempt to discredit me with this label when I first came on this site. This is why I called the bunch of you a “mutual admiration society”. Worse than that ya all wanted to control the narrative on this site and the toll shit was your method killing off any dissenters.

This is a common enough tactic. What blew my mind after a few days of clanking swords with the three of you, along with your periphery of hangers on, is that you actually believed this shit!!! It was only then that I began to see the obsession and possible neurosis involved here. Now the troll shit began to take on a whole new meaning. It wasn’t just an attack to get rid of dissenters, it was used to inflate the self-importance of the shit slingers. How wonderful it must be to feel your words are sooo important a secret army of trolls would infiltrate this site just to discredit all of the wisdom you are trying to impart to the world!

Since that revelation, I have just been having fun on the serious side, while swimming in a bowl of pablum. Have you missed out on all of the smiley faces and winks? :) :) ;)

Just out of curiosity there Abe, how stable was the middle east before 1948? The message being implied by your nemesis is the need for an overseer to keep all of these fiefdoms from killing each other.

Joe Tedesky

April 29, 2018 at 10:03 pm

WC the more appropriate question would be, and how stable was the USofA before Israel?

WC

April 29, 2018 at 10:14 pm

Hi Joe. How come you got the best logo here? :)

Since the USA has had the Federal Reserve since 1913, some would say that’s when your troubles began.

Joe Tedesky

April 29, 2018 at 10:23 pm

I’d agree with that about the Federal Reserve… that was kind of Zionist wasn’t it? About the logo, your kidding me right? Joe

WC

April 29, 2018 at 10:34 pm

Ahhh, the Banksters. Anyone who can come up with a scheme that creates money out of thin air is deserving of a certain begrudging respect, regardless of who they are. :)

No, the logo is cool. Linda windmill-like. And the color is way better than blood red.

Joe Tedesky

April 29, 2018 at 10:54 pm

Which Zionist should we begrudgingly thank for the Federal Reserve WC?

Deniz

April 29, 2018 at 10:59 pm

Isn’t ensuring that the fiefdoms kill each other the whole reason the overseer exits in the first place?

Joe Tedesky

April 30, 2018 at 1:39 am

The overseer’s responsibility is to ensure the mobs don’t kill each other during work hours. I think? Joe

Comments are closed.

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